Five stouts for the winter

The Wall Street Journal has a nice weekend piece about stouts for winter consumption. Nice overview. Some of these brews pack a lot of punch, nearly 12% in one case

Bell's Expedition Stout, 10.5% ABV | This Michigan outpost brews the best stouts in the country (a dozen varieties or more, at last count) and Expedition rules the lot. Bitter and pleasantly oily, like the darkest chocolate...

North Coast Old Rasputin, 9.0% ABV | Somewhere between a down comforter and chocolate syrup, this beer is not nearly as bitter or as grim as its name suggests

Shipyard Imperial Porter, 7.1% ABV | If you like your beers with more snap and less syrup, try this Portland, Maine brewery's take on a traditional English porter [This is a really wonderful stout. Nice taste, but light body. Not especially filling, which can be a plus.]

Avery The Czar, 11.69% ABV | This beer blooms with warm, dark fruitócurrants and plums, spiced stewed apples right from the oven.

Oskar Blues Ten FIDY, 10.5% ABV | A black hole of a beer, thick as motor oil and strong enough, one suspects, to do its job

“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. ”
― Niccolò Machiavelli